Vine Is a Four-Letter Word

The pile of what I pulled out over the weekend. More to remove at this location, and at least two other spots in the yard.



Sometime a couple of weeks ago I commented on FaceBook that gardening was great except for the bugs that bite you and eat your plants. I believe I need to add "weeds that bite back when you remove them" to the list of gardening unpleasantries. In creating the play garden (it needs a better name, but for now, that's it), I needed to remove some vines, including poison ivy from the west end of the area. I was wearing gloves, but only a short-sleeved shirt. I thought I was doing okay except for the one branch that smacked me in the face. I came inside frequently and soaped up past my elbows to try to remove any oil that may have made contact. Apparently, I didn't get it all. I watched one disturbing looking spot all day yesterday trying to determine if it was a spider bite or a poison ivy rash. Today, as the spots have emerged on both arms below the elbow, one arm past the armpit, and the place on my stomach my arm touches while I sleep -- there's no question. I applied a topical gel to the one spot yesterday and Ivarest to everything today, but more spots are appearing. So far no itch. So far.














Two kinds of ivy, both need to go. The picture on the right shows the largest tree in our yard. You can just barely see the root flare on the right side. This is not good. We need to remove the ivy, which has caused damage to the tree during the periods the property was abandoned, and dig away some of the soil to expose more of the root flare. Hopefully by doing that, removing a few of the large branches, and adding some soil amendments, we can avoid losing the tree.



The side of the tree (same one as above) facing the pool showing the ivy damage. I don't know for certain if the ivy caused the first split, removing about one third of the tree, but it certainly looks like it is trying to split what is left.















The unknown vine on the left is a weed and STINKS! Eeeewwwwww! On the right is Virginia Creeper. Not too bad, but it is in many places we don't want it and from what I understand is very difficult to kill.

But there are many more wonderful things happening here:



My gorgeous Apricot Brandy Hibiscus and a little cicada with a bent wing.

WoW #5

It's Thursday

No better excuse for blogging. We've harvested over 2.75 pounds of food since May 7th. That includes 13 ounces of blackberries, with many more to come! Our first watermelon radish weighed in at 2.2 ounces! I have not been good about taking pictures, so I went out this afternoon to catch things as they stand now.The amazing 2.2 ounce Watermelon Radish! I have a couple more in the garden now -- I'll try to remember to take pictures of the inside (which explains the name) before devouring them. I sauteed this and some other radishes with homegrown spinach and a little chard.

I found my thrill... we will only have a handful this year (provided the birds don't find them!). We planted four additional bushes for a total of six.


The citrus trees and stacking pots full of marigolds with the vegetable garden beds in the background. Looking forward to relocating the blackberries (where? don't know yet) and putting the citrus in bigger pots on the south side of the house. This is a location where we can erect a temporary greenhouse over them each winter, and not have to move the pots! Two Mexican limes (no fruit right now), two Satsumo Mandarin oranges, and one each Meyer Lemon, Lemon Drop, and The Valley Lemon.

This box has served as an orphanage of sorts. The fig was rescued from a backyard where the resident dog thought it was a tug-of-war toy. The wandering Jew came from the blackberry bed. It was in the yard before our in-laws rented the house six years ago. The beans in the pots are from the thinning of the bean/pea bed. The side of the box you can't see is also full of beans from that thinning. And the chard is in the box next to it. I'll take out the remaining chard soon to make room for the next planting.




TOM-TOM! And some (blurry) beanie-babies.








Baby zucchini (finally!) and a wee-baby watermelon!







This month we are "supposed to" plant melons, pumpkins, gourds, okra, and southern peas. I have a couple of special projects planned for the pumpkins and gourds, as well as some sunflowers, morning glories, and yard-long beans. Of course it requires more work of the digging and raking variety. I've spent the last two days clearing the weeds from the patio around the pool. I was too embarrassed to take before pictures, but really wish I had! Now my shoulders have had it, and my blisters got blisters, so I'm not sure how I can keep using a shovel unless I learn how to walk on my hands and hold the tools with my feet!

I'm also starting to do some long-term planning with the yard and finding a place for everything. We cleaned out the tool shed and the garage last week during Jeff's staycation, and he got the pool in swimming condition. We are hoping to have a good grasp on our vegetable gardens as we go through our fall planting so we can get our ducks next spring. I did well as far as not planting more than I could handle, but need to plant a little more for the bugs. Our organic methods are serving us well, but we could use at least a little buffer. For the fall garden we need a better watering system in place. I have made some clay pots for irrigation, and we may try to set up a drip or soaker system. We've been shopping for rain barrels...and the list goes on!

On the energy conservation front, Jeff has been installing soffit vents and a radiant barrier in the attic. The whole house fan will be next. With these changes we should be able to shorten our use of air conditioning by two weeks on each end of the season. I'm going to try to position the grapevines so that they shade our AC unit and the south side of the house. I still have to make the insulating shades. I keep thinking a rain day will come so I can do some housework and sewing projects, but the rain keeps missing us! Please come this way!

Hunting and Gathering

First hunting...













...then gathering.The red-shouldered hawk was in our backyard for a while before flying up to the neighbor's telephone pole for a look around the field. The radishes are our first harvest for 2010! Two White Icicle, two Early Scarlet Globe, and the fifth is either a Cherry Belle or a French Breakfast. The White Icicle on the right isn't icicle shaped because it was right up against another, which I have left to flower so I could see what it looked like. More pix soon!

WoW #4

Try not to drop your laptops. Yup, an actual Whiskers on Wednesday... on Wednesday.

Too Old for This

Most of the seeds went in three weeks ago tomorrow. I thought all of my seeds were from 2007 and took a calculated risk that many would not germinate. At this point if it was going to come up, it would have, so I'm clearing the weeds to put in new seeds today. In the meantime, I found several sources with estimations on how long properly stored seeds should last. These seeds were anything but properly stored, and seeing as they didn't germinate I began to go through the stack to throw them away. Upon further examination, I saw half the seed packs were from 2004 with a few from 2001. I must have looked at the handful from 2007 and thought they were all together.

The fact that I missed these dates does not bother me. I checked a couple of dates and went ahead with the project rather than just sitting and waiting for it to be perfect or happen on its own. That is a good thing. What concerns me is that some of those seeds were transported from the house we sold to the rent house, half-way across the country to Virginia, back across to El Paso, back to the rent house here, then into the house we are in now. Packrat? Hoarder? Unrealistic dreamer? Completely unorganized? Those things frighten me. To be burdened with things that are useless. Pointless. There's a declutterin' a comin'. A big one.

Four planted beds and a potato box on March 24. All reclaimed lumber and no, none of it is treated. If you ignore the ugly chain link fence you can see two pear and two plum trees in the background. The fifth bed was planted later, and three more are waiting to be filled with soil. I need to relocate a couple of the beds for better light.

Yellow

First, a double date. It is definitely spring around here, and "love" is in the air.

Next, at the risk of inciting an earworm... well, you know where I am and what these are.The roses are reaching about five inches in diameter. We only have one red rose for now.Our blackberries are doing well. I'm already dreaming of cobbler.The rain has driven me inside today to tend to some long-neglected projects. If I get down to the yarn cave today I should have some fiber photos to share.